The Sunday Buzz

Welcome to this week’s Sunday Buzz. I am still recuperating from my little procedure last week but the worst is over. About the only complaint I have is that I am still in a bit in a brain fog. No drugs, no pain pills, no nothing. Just that nasty anesthesia working its way through my system. Jeesh.

Speaking of drugs though, I hoarded my pain pills a bit and now have a nice stash for SHTF so I suppose there is a silver lining in everything.

Safeguarding Your Stored Goods

My lead piece this week comes from a reader who has passed on an important if not critical tip for safeguarding your stored food. Thank you, Tom, for allowing me to share this tip with my readers.

Recently on one of the TV stations they had a video on a variety of preppers showing their canned goods in addition to their various supplies. I saw a major, and I mean major problem that all of them had, and I thought you could alert your subscribers to it.

A few years ago when I lived in Idaho, we had a little 4.5 earthquake about 70 miles from my house, probably sometime in the late fall. My wife was a great canner, and we had about 300 quart jars of canned goods on the shelf in the basement. For some reason, in a dream maybe, I saw a need to put up strips about four inches above each shelf, because if there came a great shake everything would shake off the shelf onto the floor. Eventually, several weeks later, I bought enough 1” X 1” strips, eight feet long, cut them to the length I needed, and nailed them the shelving units we had.

We had the earthquake, and when I went down to the basement, all of our jars were still on the shelves, just like we planned.

It is imperative that all of the people who have glass canning jars do the same. If there is an earthquake, the jars are going to bounce off the shelves. It was reported on the radio at the time there were numerous people who had lost hundreds of jars of canned goods that they had spent all summer preparing – the jars all wound up shattered on the floor.

Tom’s advice applies to more than glass canning jars. Shelves full of canned goods also need to be stabilized in some manner and for this purpose, even strips of duct tape stretched end to end across the shelving will help. So my advice? Take a look at your storage area and take steps now to protect your goods from damage or even complete destruction during an earthquake or other natural event.

Survival Gear Bags

A few weeks ago I received an email from a reader making a comment on the Backdoor Survival and Strategic Living kits from Survival Gear Bags. The gist of the email was that the products in the kit were overpriced and not a good value. Without going in to a lot of detail, I was a bit distressed by this comment since I had put a lot of time an effort into creating practical and useful kits not filled with a bunch of low-quality junk.

I would like to address this issue today. I am a firm believer that the value proposition is an important consideration with every purchase and especially so when it comes to survival gear.

1. The ready-made survival kits you find online and in stores with a hundred items for $99 are usually filled with low quality garbage or things you can easily add from stuff around your house. That said, those kits might be fine for some people who don’t want to put effort into a custom kit or only need the items to work once and plan on having it just sit in a drawer or trunk. On the other hand, the survival kits I have put together at Survival Gear Bags are intended to be used in a myriad of situations – large crises or small bumps in the road – and the gear inside is designed to last.

2. As far as contents in concerned, the kits purposely include high quality items that should be supplemented with your own supplies, clothing, food, personal care medications, wipes and other specifics unique to your situation.

3. The reader’s email mentioned that the kit provided low bang for the buck. I think you would be hard pressed to find these items for less money if they were bought separately. Now you might find many of the items comparably priced on Amazon, but if you had to run around from store to store I can pretty much guarantee the cost would be more.

4. The Backdoor Survival and Strategic Living kits are just two examples of decent survival kits. They do not claim to be the end all of all kits out there. If you are interested in a different selection of items, you can build a custom kit on the Survival Gear Bags site – and believe me, there is a lot to choose from.

I suppose I am beating a dead horse here – and yes, I do make a small commission from each sale – but I felt that it was important to clear the air on something that I feel passionate about which is good value for the dollar spent. I plan on covering this topic again in more detail but for now, I hope you will take a look at my article: A Survival Gear Bag-A Choice that Can Save Your Life.

Backdoor Survival Welcomes Shelf Reliance and Misty Marsh

I am absolutely thrilled to welcome a new sponsor to the Backdoor Survival team. My favorite Shelf Reliance distributor, Misty Marsh has come aboard this month. Here is what she has to say:

The THRIVE food line from Shelf Reliance can completely change how you approach food storage. THRIVE foods have the shelf life of “traditional” food storage up to 30 years. Yet they are so delicious that keeping it in your pantry is just like having your own home store, completely stocked with all the food you love. Having a home store of great tasting food makes you less reliant on the grocery store every day, not just in a disaster situation. Plus, using THRIVE will decrease the time, money and stress it takes to provide delicious,nutritious meals for your family.

Right now you can save over 40% on freeze dried meat and cheese to add to your home store. Find more on this page: Meat and Cheese Sale.

A word about the Meat and Chees sale: I was planning to place an order for both the 6 pack of ground beef and chicken and the six pack of cheese at Costco. Surprise surprise – I found that even with the cost of shipping, the price was less when I made my purchase directly through Misty. To take advantage of this order, simply email Misty at misty@yourownhomestore.com and let her know you want to take advantage of the special. Note, however, that the sales ends at 9AM PST on March 8th so you will need to move quickly.

But there is more: Misty is also offering 10% back in free product to any Backdoor survival reader who makes a purchase of $300 or more. Now how neat is that? Gosh, you just have to love my sponsors!

Reminder: Facebook Fan Page

I am absolutely thrilled that I have almost 200 fans that have signed on to my Facebook page. I need five more fans to make it to 200 so if you are Facebook type of person, jump on over jump to my Backdoor Survival fan page and let me know you like me! (And who knows, next I will shoot for 500 fans.)

Today on Strategic Living

Ready for a bit of whimsy? Well, maybe not whimsy but a challenging look at The Quest for Magic Water and the Fountain of Youth. George and I researched the world of water ionizers and such and have yet to come up with a definitive opinion. You be the judge.

Enjoy your next adventure through common sense and thoughtful preparation!

Related Articles:

From the Bargain Bin: At the beginning of each month I like to review the most popular items purchased during the previous month by Backdoor Survival readers on Amazon. It makes for some interesting reading and also gives me ideas for adding to my own preps and of course, to my survival library.

Today I want to recommend one of my own purchases. As silly as it seems, an old fashion alarm clock is a difficult thing to find. You know the kind: big dial, sweep hand and simple, brain-dead easy operation. Well let me tell you: I have found the perfect clock! It is the Elgin Battery-Operated Analog Alarm Clock and it is $9.99. Imagine that. No more spending time waiting for the digital LED to recycle in order to change the time. You have got to love it!

Want to help support Backdoor Survival?Your purchases earn a smallcommission and for that I thank you!

Comments

I got the same Kaito radio on Sportsmans Guide for $45.00. Don’t forget shipping costs for everything. It is a good radio, and I have bought others for family members. Of course if you shop around, you can custom outfit a bag with what you want. I didn’t try to price out the whole outfit. May not be a bad deal if you don’t want to take the time to assemble your own. I would rather have my own designed bag. I’m about half way there.

Connect with Me

MEET GAYE

I'm Gaye, just an ordinary gal trying to make sense of our changing world. I am addicted to prepping, DIY projects, adult coloring books, and ballroom dancing. I live what I call a strategic life and believe you should too. Everyone needs to prepare for the worst and live for the best. Won't you join me?

Categories

NEW EDITION

A frequent question I get on Backdoor Survival has to do with healthcare matters when there is no doctor around. This is the definite source of survival medical information for all Prepper’s and is my go-to bible for survival medicine.

VOTE FOR BACKDOOR SURVIVAL

Listen to The Prepper Podcast

EBOOK ONLY 99 CENTS + AVAILABLE IN PRINT!

NOTE

BackdoorSurvival.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.